Tub Talk With The Hot Tub Lady
Welcome to Tub Talk with The Hot Tub Lady, your ultimate relaxation destination for all things hot tub and spa-related! Dive into our weekly live podcast where host and industry expert Jacque, The Hot Tub Lady, shares her wealth of knowledge, tips, and tricks to help you create the perfect oasis in your own backyard. Tub Talk has got you covered, from maintenance advice and product reviews to interviews with leading experts and inspiring stories from hot tub enthusiasts. So grab your favorite drink, slip into your swimsuit, and let's get bubbly as we explore the soothing world of hot tubs together.
Tub Talk With The Hot Tub Lady
Protecting Your Hot Tub from Winter's Wrath
Brace yourself for the chill of winter with expert insights on hot tub maintenance that could save you from costly repairs. Ever wondered what it's like to deal with a frozen hot tub during a bitter cold snap? We've been there, and we're sharing our personal mishap to show you that even the pros can get caught off guard. But don't worry, this episode is packed with tips on how to avoid such pitfalls, including the integration of Free Flow Spas with the Frog @ease system and the importance of sourcing local salt cells to dodge counterfeits.
As temperatures plunge, protecting your hot tub becomes crucial. We've got you covered with must-have tools like the bucket heater and freeze guard kits that can shield your setup from the harshest Arctic Blasts. Plus, discover the innovative filter basket from Free Flow Spas designed for the Spa Frog system, which significantly cuts down on maintenance time by maintaining low chlorine levels. We’ve also included cheat sheets and guides to help you maximize your Spa Frog experience.
Buy the new Freeflow Spa Frog Integration Here:
Get The Freeze Gaurd Kit Here:
Maintenance is the heartbeat of your hot tub, and we're here to ensure it runs smoothly all season long. From regular filter cleaning every two to four weeks to knowing when it's time to replace a worn-out filter, these practices are vital for your hot tub's longevity. We also address listener questions about system upgrades and share some unique cleaning tips to keep things running efficiently. And don't miss out on our exciting coffee mug giveaway as we celebrate our podcast ranking, a testament to our amazing listeners. Tune in, stay warm, and keep your hot tub troubles at bay with our latest insights.
Looking for answers to your hot tub questions? Look no further than Hot Tub Clarity! Our easy-to-understand guide is available now on Amazon. Simply search for Hot Tub Clarity Book and get your copy today. Plus, while you're there, check out our log books to keep your hot tub maintenance on track. Trust us, you won't regret it!
And.
Speaker 2:I am Frank Johnson. You are Mr Frank.
Speaker 1:Johnson and happy new year.
Speaker 2:Happy new year, everybody. Welcome to 2025. Let's survive January.
Speaker 1:Survive January. That's pretty much the theme for today is surviving January. We both went back to work on Monday, which we were to work off and on the entire holiday season. But we went back to work on Monday. That cold front came through and oh did we have.
Speaker 2:Does it every time?
Speaker 1:We had some messes to clean up. There was a list of frozen hot tubs. Messages left on the machine.
Speaker 2:Yes, there was, yes, there was A lot of frozen hot tubs out there, and we're going to get through that today. That's why we're here. We're going to talk about that, we're going to talk about that.
Speaker 1:We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about, uh, free flow spas introduced a new system where they can actually, uh, work with the frog at ease. We're going to talk about that a little bit and we're going to talk about how to keep your hot tub from freezing. Just a little housekeeping to begin with. Just want to remind you guys last week if you didn't catch the podcast last week just because it was right before the holidays we did talk about the counterfeit salt cells that are out there. That is a good thing for you guys to know that you want to buy your salt cells from your local dealer. If you don't do that, you are just asking for problems. Be sure to check out the last episode of the podcast. I go into quite a bit of detail on that, but that is there. I also want to remind you it's important and I also want to remind everybody that we are off next week because I'm going to California.
Speaker 2:I'm not.
Speaker 1:You're not. He's going to stay back and take care of the hot tubs, and I'm going to go.
Speaker 2:Somebody has to.
Speaker 1:He's a little sour about this. Maybe next year, maybe next year, I don't know. It's a pretty good time. I don't know if you can handle the handle, the good time that the hot tub.
Speaker 2:I love it here in South Dakota. I'll stay here. Love South Dakota.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, yeah, I'm going to California next week, uh, going to the Watkins wellness dealer event and I'm super excited. There is some really fun, exciting stuff that I cannot wait to bring you the podcast the following week because then I can share all the new fun, exciting things that is happening in the hot tub world and they outdid themselves this year for sure.
Speaker 2:So I'm super excited to share all that with you and you'll just have to wait, okay, so I'm fixing everybody's share all that with you and you'll just have to wait, oh, okay, so I'm fixing everybody's hot tubs while you're in 80 degrees or the other way, and I'm below zero and I think I'll probably learn more than you.
Speaker 1:You probably will. It's typically a hundred degree difference from when I get on the plane on Sunday morning and I land on Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 2:You do what you got to do. I'll keep fixing everybody's hot tub around here and keep them happy afternoon. Oh, you do what you gotta do. I'll keep fixing everybody's hot tub around here and keep them happy. And uh, uh, you know, by saying that, uh, finally I got to hot tub before the show tonight and, wow, we got to talk about hot tubs because I'm very in love with my hot tub and what an inspiration that was tonight to go in there and uh, got my energy back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was pretty awesome. It was so. It's been really cold, like it's almost that bitter bite your ears off, cold and you have to put the stocking hat on and all that. I got off work on time today, so I actually made it here and so we both jumped in the hot tub for about 15, 20 minutes and it was good. We were able to get our head straight, do what we needed to do and, yeah, we very much enjoyed that.
Speaker 2:And as you talk about that, it's a big thing in this hot tub world about that temperature change and out there in the field today and yesterday. You can only do so much. You can fix a hot tub, save a hot tub, but boy did drain and refill one. No, the reason being is because when that temperature goes to so much of freezing water freezes really fast and it gets scary. We'll go into this more.
Speaker 1:We will. I guess we're going to start with tub time trends, because that's our first feature and our tub time trend today is dirty filters cause frozen hot tubs. I don't know if that's a trend or not, but it definitely is the case.
Speaker 2:Happened twice today.
Speaker 1:It happened five times on Monday. So it's been pretty crazy. But I will tell you the first thing that it happened to our hot tub. To be honest with you, tuesday morning I got up to Tuesday or Monday morning I got up to use the hot tub and I think it was Monday because I had Monday off and I went out to use the hot tub and it was 80 degrees and I was like oof and so I run back in with my towel. I'm like Frank, fix the hot tub, okay okay.
Speaker 1:And you did so what do I do?
Speaker 2:I go out there, pull the filter, do all the good things to fix it and you tell them what happened. Your fault.
Speaker 1:What is my fault? I will assume it's my fault. I don't know if it's my fault. I think it's your fault actually, but the temperature actually got turned down, I'm sure when we were climbing in and out of the hot tub, because I use the hot tub every day and so for it to be down to 80 degrees. It takes a lot for a Caldera hot tub to lose 20 degrees temperature in 24 hours. I mean it takes a lot and I'm like what the heck is going on. So, anyway, the temperature actually got turned down to 80 degrees, so there was no heat going on. But we did what you needed to do in a situation like that we pulled the filter out.
Speaker 2:Actually, frank pulled the filter out, he cleaned the filter, and it's actually a good thing this happened, because you need to explain this to everybody out there. This what could happen is and we're all guilty of it, I'm guilty of it myself when you jump into your hot tub, your hand might go on that top side. Utopia or paradise series, it can go on that top side. What that top side? When I'm explaining that is where it tells your temperature, your jets, all your running buttons that do that. Your hand or your fingers might touch one of them and it could send something off. Always be aware of that and just and look at make sure a spa lock probably would have been a good thing to have on and I didn't spa locker.
Speaker 1:Even more importantly, if we'd had a temperature lock on, it wouldn't have caused any issues. So that was that would be my bad. I should have set the temperature lock.
Speaker 1:It could have been mine too and one of us hit the button on the way out and we actually turned the temperature all the way down to 80 degrees, so there was no heat going to the hot tub at all, and it did get down to 82 the next morning. So, anyway, we cleaned the filter. I think it's a good thing that it happened, because that filter was filthy.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. It's amazing, these cold temperatures everybody out there you have to know this these cold temperatures actually will dirty your filter more than the warmer temperatures. I've seen it. I've dealt with this forever. I recommend you got to check it two to four weeks. You really do. If you pull it out and look at it, looks clean, fine. But pulled it out out there and, uh, I was on three job sites today where every filter was dirty and I just cleaned them a week ago right and you are doing some valet service where you are cleaning those filters on a weekly basis and they're getting.
Speaker 1:They are getting really dirty and our filter was really dirty and I think too that you feel it's dirtier because you know what it'll do. So what happens is that filter gets dirty and it restricts the flow to the heater. And in the summer months I don't really worry about it because my filter I mean, what's the worst that happens if my hot tub stops heating it? Just I don't get to use it for a couple hours. I turn it back on and it's good to go in the summer. In the winter that's a really big deal because your hot tub can freeze. And we did get it heated back up and everything was working. We used the hot tub that night. So the hot tub was down for what? Four hours, six hours, something like that.
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 1:And we got in the hot tub and then we turned the jets on and that was like sheets of ice coming through those jets. That water was ice cold.
Speaker 2:It can go that fast, and it was, so you've got to be looking.
Speaker 1:So that was the outside water, outside of the tub of the vessel of water that's heated. That water was cold and I could see where that would freeze and that's where the issues happen when your hot tub freezes. The worst thing that can ever happen to a hot tub is for it to freeze and if it does that, it freezes in those jets and those elbows and all those joints and that's where the cracks happen and that's when your hot tub starts leaking and that's where all the issues cost you lots of money.
Speaker 2:A quick explanation on this in the real world. I was a UPS driver for 33 years and it's amazing what 31 degrees driving up and down an interstate can do, compared to 27 degrees Certain time of day the sun's not shining on it, you can get black ice in 10 minutes and you can't move your tires. And when the sun comes out, bang later all of a sudden. Why did I even slip? It's all gone. So in the hot tub world, let's say to 26, to what 18, 17 degree, seven degree difference can? You can pour water out, spill it on the side. You go walk on that water on your sidewalk that you just built. You'll fall down because it automatically turns to ice. Just how fast that works. It's scary.
Speaker 1:So it is a big deal. Kayla had a pretty good comment here. She says my filter isn't electrical equipment, so how can it cause my hot tub to freeze? Hopefully I explained that.
Speaker 1:But what happens is that filter gets dirty, that water can't go through the filter, and then it can't get to the heater, so it's starving the pump and it's starving the heater and it definitely hurts your hot tub and the worse it gets, the colder it gets, the worse it gets. Also, I want to shout out to Michael Penn hey, great to see you. Thanks for your support all the years. Did you know that today is my YouTube channel's birthday?
Speaker 2:happy birthday to you it's come.
Speaker 1:It's come a long way, but for it's nine years old today.
Speaker 2:Congratulations, jackie, you've done a fabulous job, and um, yeah, there's nothing I can say, but you've done a fabulous job and thank everybody out there for paying attention and listening and hopefully we're giving you great tips, and all we want is ever to be a happy hot tubber that's all that is.
Speaker 1:Our main goal is to become happy hot tubbers, so we're going to so. Also on I'm going to talk about on the something that you can have, or a piece of insurance that you should have, in your garage is what we call a freeze guard kit, and that is this bucket heater here. You can get them on Amazon right now for $39. I have a link down below that's got the whole kit that you can check in. So those of you that are listening, this is just a heater that goes inside of a bucket and it's just something that you can have in your garage, and so what?
Speaker 2:you do, is you?
Speaker 1:take this heater, you put it inside of the bucket and then you put the whole bucket, you submerge that in the water. And the reason that you put it inside of the bucket and then you put the whole bucket, you submerge that in the water. And the reason that you put it in the bucket is in case the hot tub were to drain, which can happen when it's freezing. It'll the water's, the heater's in the bucket and it won't hurt the hot tub shell at all. So you're going to have that bucket, you're going to have that heater in it and it will keep that hot tub from freezing. In fact, it'll get it back up to a hundred degrees. Now I do not ever want anybody to use their hot tub while they have that in there. The whole purpose of this is to keep the hot tub from freezing.
Speaker 1:All those hot tubs that they had, the service techs had to go out and fix. This week we had five hot tubs that had layers of ice on them. They went out, they took a sledgehammer Nobody had been out frozen long enough that they were completely frozen but they took a sledgehammer, they broke through the ice, they put that bucket in the water with the heater. By tomorrow, those hot tubs are all going to be 100 degrees again. We'll pull the filters out and hopefully they'll just fire right back up, but that is something that you guys should have Again. I'll have this in the podcast notes and I'll have it in the description on the YouTube channel, but definitely check that out because that's a big deal.
Speaker 2:And what is she saying here is that this will give you time to call me or the tech to come and save your hot tub. Huge deal, so great explanation, jackie.
Speaker 1:And then Kayla did have a good point. She says also make sure not to have the bucket heater in there for too long. They can actually get up to 120 degrees and that's ouch.
Speaker 1:And again, please do not use your hot tub with this and that is not designed for people to be in it with. It is designed. What we're using this for is to save your hot tub, so that's just a really good thing to do. It's like I said I, you can get them for 39 on amazon right now if you wait until it's freezing, or you wait till the big polar what is that called? Arctic blast arctic, blast, blast, I'm thinking Polar Vortex comes through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that too. They're both below zero.
Speaker 1:And when that comes through and everybody needs a bucket heater at the same time, guess what? That price goes way up. I've seen them go up to $150, $200 in the middle of January. So get it now while you can, and then you just have it in your garage and you just never have to think about it. I think we have seven. But, when we were living in Watertown. A lot of people needed them and we'd never so my next topic.
Speaker 2:Keep an eye on the people out there.
Speaker 1:Which is Free Flow Spas just did the most amazing thing they created this new filter basket. So anybody that has a 2012 or newer hot tub, you can get this new filter basket. So anybody that has a 2012 or newer hot tub, you can get this new filter basket. And what this does is this actually holds the spa frog system in it, and so your spa frog, instead of having to float around in a floater or something like that, or not using spa frog at all, you can now use the spa frog system. You just slide that into the filter basket and then you have your chlorine cartridge and your mineral cartridge and now you've got a super easy way to take care of your hot tub. And this will actually retrofit, and this is a really inexpensive way to do it.
Speaker 1:I want to say these are like $65 or something like that, and I do have a link for those as well, but your local dealer will definitely have these. But if you have a free flow spa or a fantasy spa or something along that lines, you can definitely now use the free, the at ease system. Now, at our location, we supplied floaters and everybody was using it anyway, so that that spa frog at ease system is an absolute amazing way to take care of your hot tub. You only have to shock it once a month. You keep your chlorine at a 0.5 or lower. It's just awesome.
Speaker 2:That's a great new feature. Yeah, absolutely wonderful, and it's a lot less hassle way easier.
Speaker 1:And I love the fact that A they allow you to retrofit. Typically, when they come out with something new like this, they require you to buy a new hot tub and now, for a minimal price, you can actually put this into your hot tub, you can retrofit it and now you can use that Spa Frog at ease system. You're going to absolutely love it. I do have cheat sheets for everybody all the new people out there that are using the Spa Frog system. I have those links. Or you can go to my website, thehottubladyco, and then go to the bottom of the website and go to the downloads, and there you can find the cheat sheets for all of the Spa Frogs. So if you have 150 gallon or you have a 500 gallon kit, then it's right there. And then Kyle is also sharing all the links in the comments. So thank you, kyle. I appreciate that so, but we are doing really well with that.
Speaker 1:So benefits of the spa frog system is it kills bacteria two ways one with the smart chlor technology and one with the minerals. It reduces the chlorine use by 75%. There's no measuring, there's none of the things. You just set the dial decide where it's going to be on these at ease cartridges and the mineral cartridges. You can see right on here here. There's just a little dial and you just click that up and it's. You usually set it on two or three, you set the blue one on six and you are good to go. You shock it once a month with the frog. Maintain I like to use just dichlor is what I typically use, and then it just makes it super easy to take care of your hot tub. Free flow and fantasy owners. Congratulations, you are now yeah.
Speaker 2:It makes your life a lot easier.
Speaker 1:It's you've got an inline chemical system for your hot tub.
Speaker 2:That's a great feature, great feature.
Speaker 1:So that's absolutely awesome. Our next feature is you, frank and it is Frank's fix it Tips.
Speaker 2:What did I get here?
Speaker 1:Let me see if I can find the. There we go Frank's Fix it Tips.
Speaker 2:Oh, what's your question? Frank's Fix it Tips. Oh, winter survival, yeah, surviving January. Okay, I'm sorry I got to laugh.
Speaker 1:I got to laugh because before we got on the show today, I asked him what his Frank's Fix-It tips are and he's it's not going to matter, You're not going to stop talking.
Speaker 2:I was in the hot tub I got yeah, it's like you're not going to stop talking, I'm not going to get to do anything anyway, and I'm ready to talk about everything in life. And, like I say, I was out there in the field today and the temperature got below zero this and that, but any time of the year, what is the most important? What is the heart of your hot tub, people? What is the heart of your hot tub? Your filter correct? And what does a filter do? A filter keeps water circulating properly I have to read this so I say it correctly Ensuring the heating system can do its job.
Speaker 2:And what we mean by that is dirty filters don't do the job. And when you're out there at any time of the season, guys, and most important, in the winter, let's clean that filter. Let's check it every two to four weeks, let's look at it and make sure it's flowing properly, make sure it's doing its job, because without circulation and filtration in your hot tub doesn't run correctly, right, it's hard to keep the chemicals balanced, it's hard to have good water, it just makes it a nuisance. So probably the cheapest part of your hot tub is your filter and it's the heart of your hot tub. It's like us people, you got to take care of our hearts and the more we take care of that filter guys, your hot tub will run properly.
Speaker 2:So with that, like I said before, rinse your filter every two to four weeks, please, look at it, please take it out, clean it, even if it looks clean. Sometimes you just need to rinse it out, put it it back in, adjust your chemicals properly. But I give we can't stress that enough and I know jackie the hot tub lady's been on a podcast forever and you look at all the podcasts out there. They all say about clean your filters and me. But I'm a hot tub fixer and I'm guilty of not cleaning my filter and it's proven to me that is true. Clean your filter and keep it clean.
Speaker 1:And 100% At the very minimum that you need to do is you need to clean that every two weeks. That's the absolute minimum. I'm going to tell you that you need to rinse it once a week, hoping you do it once a month. What I'm really going to recommend and I know you guys have heard me say this a thousand times get three filters. You can get by with two, but get three filters. Have one filter in the hot tub doing its job. Have another filter soaking in a bucket of filter cleaner so it's ready to go. Have a third filter dry on the shelf and so that we can just rotate those filters once a month. If you do that once a month, you'll get three to five years out of those filters and you're never going to get caught with your pants down when your hot tub isn't working and it's down to 80 degrees and you don't have a filter to put in. That worked out perfect.
Speaker 2:Great explanation. I was going to say why do we do this? You just explained it, why you won't have any troubles.
Speaker 1:But that worked perfect for us yesterday or Monday when we had to clean our filter when Frank was late for work. I'm like you have to fix this. He was able to just go get a dry filter off of the shelf, put that in there and then he actually that's what he does for a living is he goes in and he took the filter to the shop there and just cleaned it inside of the shop. But if you have a dry filter on your shelf ready to go at all times, it just it's.
Speaker 2:I recommend everybody out there have at least one extra filter yes, and it just.
Speaker 1:It makes all the difference in the world, because nobody wants to clean their filter. Nobody wants to clean their filter between now and march.
Speaker 2:You just they're going to avoid it at all costs it's funny because the orientations I give in in the freshwater iq, your salt cartridges, all these parts are very expensive and it's funny how that part of your hot tub is the filters probably the cheapest part of your hot tub and it's the most important and so I recommend it. I don't care if you have two salt cartridges or two Freshwater IQ systems or two Froggatties or whatever. I recommend you have two filters besides anything.
Speaker 1:I actually recommend. Three is my personal, and you don't have to buy them all today. You don't have to go out and spend $300 today, but next time you're in the hot tub store, buy one more. The next time you're in the hot tub store, buy one more, and then you have three, and then you can just rotate them. You don't have to throw them away, you just need to rinse them and clean them. And it's just really important and it's a good thing to do. Someone's having three cars in your driveway.
Speaker 1:You got a battery for each one. Just put some battery on. We got that issue going on right now. It's all good. So that moves us on to listener Q&A. So if anybody has a question, now would be a great time to ask. Kyle says can the Spa Frog retrofit on the free flows? And kyle, they can. It goes all the way back to 2012. So if you have a 2012 or newer, you can put that spa frog uh oh, great question and great answer so people will need to know that so that is a a big thing.
Speaker 1:Um, here's a question for you, or for you, frank. How do I know if my filter needs to be replaced instead of just cleaned?
Speaker 2:Oh goodness, there's a lot of. You can actually me, I'm going to say your first time looking at your filter. I look at them a lot and I can tell right away. But when you first pull that filter out and if you got almost like paper shredding or do you know as you go to clean it it's not circulating like it actually should or it's not coming out like it actually should. There's a point in time you can actually look at it naked eye and go, yes, I need a new filter. It's like an air filter in a car, like a gasket for anything else. You can tell it's almost like it's shredding or stuff is starting to fall off it. If stuff starts to fall off your filter, it's time to replace, it's time to get into it so that's it.
Speaker 1:That's a good way. That's a good way to explain it.
Speaker 2:Um, how I like to explain it if it's starting, if it's getting furry so yeah, that's kind of the word I was looking for and I couldn't find fibers are breaking.
Speaker 1:It's time to replace that filter, those straps. There are those bands around those. Every once in a while those break those aren't. Oh my gosh, you have to replace them.
Speaker 1:But no, it's more about the up and down flurries yeah, so the if they get hairy or furry, that's when it's time to do it. You can also take the filter up and look at it in a little light and if if you can't see through it, it definitely needs to be cleaned. And if you clean it and you still can't see through it see the light come through it then it's probably time to replace that filter. And filters can look clean, but they can be completely full of calcium and they're still not getting stuff through it, so just keep that in mind.
Speaker 1:H welcome to the broadcast.
Speaker 2:He says what's the best way to clean a filter. Oh H, welcome to the broadcast. He says what's the best way to clean a filter. Oh, jd, welcome to the podcast. Sir, my favorite way, and you can do it several, many ways. But I like to pull the filter out and I like to go to my source water outside the house.
Speaker 2:You do not want to. What's the word for the? Anyway, you want hard, hard water going at it. You don't want to pressure wash it. Thank you, jackie. You don't want to pressure wash it because that could ruin it. But you want to start at the top and go up and down your filter, side to side, turn your filter with one hand and go up and down. And we have a lot of videos that show you and I've showed how many people that clean the filters. I spray on the filter cleaner beforehand and then spray it all off and you want that filter cleaner out of there. So you want all that water sources up and down your filter, getting all that stuff, all your cleaner stuff, to get out of there before you put it back in. But almost a pressure wash, like you would your garage floor, but just you and your source water, with the sprayer hand in hand yeah is my favorite.
Speaker 2:You can do dishwater and you can go on from there.
Speaker 1:How long do you think somebody needs to spray their filter? I?
Speaker 2:spray mine for 10 minutes. No matter what it looks like, it's clean. I just keep going, I keep turning it, I keep going and going.
Speaker 1:I think Frank explained that really well. So what I? My favorite way to do it and the way I've been doing it for 20 plus years is I have a filter and then I have a bucket and I'll take the spa guard filter cleaner is my favorite filter cleaner. I'll take half of that bottle and I'll pour into the filter cleaning or into the five gallon bucket. I will put the filter in that bucket. I will put a rock or something on it to submerge that. I will let it soak for at least overnight.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I am lazy and I will leave it in there for a month and that's why I have three filters, because then I can put another filter in there and then I can rotate Once after that's out overnight, then I'll take it and I will take that. Like Frank said, take a garden hose with a pressure nozzle on it and I'll just go up and down and I'd say 10 to 20 minutes. If you don't, then you're going to get soap suds into the hot tub and then you're going to have a lot of foam afterwards. Another way to help prevent that is to actually, after you rinse it, let it dry for at least 24 hours. That helps a lot on that and it actually makes those fibers fill the fibers tighter, fibers tighter um, the best way for me to describe is pair of jeans.
Speaker 1:When you first put them on, after you pull them on the dryer, they're much tighter than they are then after you've used them for a while. So they it tightens it up and it makes that filter a little more. You don't have to let those filters dry, but it's actually good for them to dry them out every once in a while.
Speaker 2:So JD says is there any easier way to get in the pleats? And I guess what I got to say is that's why I said don't use a pressure washer, because you can damage your filter by getting too much pressure on those pores in your filter. So actually, what I explained before is the simplest way, but how would you go about?
Speaker 1:that. That's really about the only way. The only other thing I could tell you is there's a tool out there. It's called a filter flosser. They're hard to find anymore. I know you can't find them on Amazon. But there it's a little metal U shaped nozzle that hooks to your hose and then it's. It sends out pressure and then it's curved, so it goes along the curve of the filter and then you can just do a bigger area at one time, but it still gives you pressure to do that.
Speaker 2:It's a judgment thing and you have to be common sense going into it. You want to put that filter up and put your pressure washer on and blow it five feet away from you. That is too much, so you want to get that thing close.
Speaker 1:You want to take your water source, water hose and just you're cleaning not destroying, and is that a good? Explanation. That is a good, you did good there. We got sergio.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hey, sergio, sorry he's reporting in late, but he is here so he's probably fixing hot tubs, yet I probably left him alone on one. Good to see you, sergio did. Did you do that? No, I did not, okay.
Speaker 1:Let's see. And then what is the best way to protect my hot tub during a power outage?
Speaker 2:Oh, I've been explaining it the whole night.
Speaker 1:So it's a little different when you have an actual power outage, because the number one thing is don't drain it, whatever you don't drain it drain it, whatever you don't drain it. If your hot tub's 100 degrees and you keep the cover on of it, keep the cover on it. You literally will have I don't know, depending on the hot tub anywhere from three to ten days before that hot tub will actually freeze and your temperature and what time of year.
Speaker 1:It is right, there's a lot of factors in there, so I didn't just tell everybody that they didn't have to worry about it. But what I am am telling you is be smart. If your hot tub's at 100 degrees and it's zero below, let the.
Speaker 2:You got time, don't stress. You got time, don't stress.
Speaker 1:Don't panic. Back in Nebraska a huge ice storm came through and we I personally was out without power for 12 days. That just doesn't happen in the world anymore. That was a long that was a lifetime ago when that happened and I was without power for 12 days.
Speaker 1:There was, we had our hot tub dealership was in a rural area. We were had hot tubs all over the country, we were going 300 miles every direction and we had a generator and we were going out and we were winterizing hot tubs. So we were taking a generator, we were blowing out the hot tubs, put nanofreeze in them. Don't do that unless you have the equipment to do. You cannot gravity drain a hot tub when you don't have any power and you've got to have a generator. You've got to be able to blow those lines out. You got to pump the water out and you've got to move quickly. But we were doing that all over the place and there wasn't one caldera in the mix.
Speaker 1:But we were on day 12 and Alan was in the truck with the generator heading to Ainsworth, nebraska, which was about 250 miles away. The customer called when he was about halfway there. So he was about 90 minutes in on the ride and the customer called or the power came back on and that hot tub was at 33 degrees, but he didn't open it up, he wasn't peeking at it, he wasn't doing the things to to make the water cool off faster. And when I talk about, our hot tub, yesterday was at drop clear down to 80 degrees. We were in it for an hour with no heat and that's why we lost 20 degrees Before we realized that the heater wasn't working. Correct. If you have your cover on and things are good, you're going to be fine. If it gets to the point that you do have to drain the hot tub, that doesn't mean go out there and drain it in the middle of the blizzard, and I've had people do it and it's just a disaster every single time it happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wait, and don't drain it from the.
Speaker 1:Wait till the storm is over, and then you can drain it and then get some antifreeze and blow out the lines. More importantly, if you just get that bucket heater, that'll solve a ton of problems that's about 90 of what you should do that's my number one go-to every time is use the bucket heater, but if you don't have power, there's other things involved there, so that's what you've got. Yeah, that's a tough one and hopefully those bad situations when power goes out.
Speaker 2:But I just want to say a big shout out to Kayla I know when we're on air like this and we're talking about the subject we have to talk about and a big shout out to Kayla for thank you for asking the questions that we can't and we don't get time to. Anybody that's watching right now is a good person to look up as Kayla Stauffer. She does have a very good knowledge of the hot tub stuff and she answers a lot of questions for she helps us out a lot, so thank you, kayla.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you, Frank, and Kayla does help out a lot on the Facebook channel. Clean your Hot Tub Filter. Clean your Filter.
Speaker 2:She's probably smarter than both of us, the good person to look up.
Speaker 1:I did teach her everything she knows, just like you but it's all good. So, anyway, those are the questions that that we have there, guys.
Speaker 2:That's, this has gone yeah, we're about ready to wrap up.
Speaker 1:We did overtime tonight, but but yeah, no, it's been good we got a giveaway we got a giveaway. Uh, we're gonna give away a coffee mug again this week, because nobody shared the podcast last week, which and maybe they did and I just was.
Speaker 2:I didn't pay a lot of attention to social media last week because of we got a couple of guys that have been asking questions that have been good friends. I think we just give them each a coffee mug anyway.
Speaker 1:Yes, we could do that. I think we should do that, I would like to send JD.
Speaker 2:and Was it Mike? Was it the other one? I'm sorry, there's too many. Sergio, you already got a coffee mug. We'll give Sergio one too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a coffee one. We'll give Sergio one too, but yeah, so yeah, jd, if, if you want to DM me on any of the social medias, I would be more than happy to.
Speaker 1:We'll get him some gifts to get you a coffee cup and then, if anybody else wants to win a coffee mug, so we're going to give away a coffee mug again this week. If you share the podcast, either the one here on YouTube or the one that you guys listen to. If you share the podcast and tag me in it at the hot tub lady on any of the social medias that's my handle on all of them Twitter or X or whatever that's called now, all the things Instagram, tiktok, youtube, all of them. So if you tag me in that and I see it, we will put you in a drawing and we will give away another coffee cup, not next Tuesday, but the following Tuesday, and then we will be live again, not next week, but the following week, and then we will be back to a weekly podcast.
Speaker 2:Okay, I got to go back to one more tip, though I really do, and Sergio just reminded me of this, and it's so true.
Speaker 1:So I want you to explain to everybody that sergio says it is very correct here, so you please say this to everybody, okay? So sergio is talking about the space or the bucket heater.
Speaker 2:He says place the bucket heater in so what you can do is run the both on two outlets. So you don't get that, so go ahead all right, so sorry.
Speaker 1:I was trying to read that and Frank was talking to me.
Speaker 2:She can't see.
Speaker 1:So we have so in our freeze guard kits that we do hand out at the store. So if you live in Sioux Falls and you need a freeze guard kit, we actually loan them out to any of our customers because we just don't want anybody's hot tub to freeze. And so you get the bucket heater and a little space heater and that's a good idea if you guys are going to do that. But you want to put the bucket heater and then get an extension cord and run that on a separate outlet and then put a space heater up in the equipment area. Make sure it's not touching anything. You don't want it to melt anything, but you can get it in the equipment area to keep that area warm. And they need to be on separate outlets because if they're on the same outlet they will flip the breaker. In fact my we have a space heater in our garage and I turned the sauna on the other day and I that's what will happen.
Speaker 2:So great explanation. And just I wanted to reach out to that because we did explain how you can just throw that in there. If you do a circuit breaker, that's a bad deal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just hadn't mentioned the space either, and that's fine.
Speaker 2:But thank you, sergio, for reaching out to us for that. We did need that explanation to everybody and I hope we got it to you in time. So you guys are awesome.
Speaker 1:The podcast is just growing and growing. I got an email the other day. We are in the number two out of all the Hot Tub podcasts.
Speaker 2:Oh, you should throw some balloons at that. Two in the world of Hot Tub podcasts.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so we're in the top four, for sure, but we're number two out of all the Hot Tub podcasts, which is totally amazing.
Speaker 2:So you guys out there, help us get to number one.
Speaker 1:So we appreciate it. Keep liking, following commenting, rate us. Give a review If you're listening on Apple. Be sure to give a review If you're on Spotify all the things. Don't forget to grab your copy of the Hot Tub Clarity. You can get that on Amazon. Just look under Hot Tub Books and you can get that there. That's awesome. You can get the log books. Be sure to join the Facebook page. Clean your filter. That's what we talk about all the time is cleaning your filter, so make sure you guys do that Take care of your heart and take care of your heart, of the hot tub, your filter.
Speaker 1:All right guys. Thank you so much, and we will see you again in two weeks.
Speaker 2:Bye everybody.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's not what we wanted to do.
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